I absolutely wasn't, was I?

I recently volunteered to help out with my local girl guide group and last night was my first meeting with them. At the start they all played a game where one leader would call out a statement followed by an instruction such as 'if you have brown hair, move four chairs to the left'.

This went on for a while and in the end, the other leader was running out of suggestions, so the girls got a bit silly and started shouting out their own. One girl shouted 'Move one chair right if you're American!' to which the leader laughed and said 'No one here is American X!'. Another little girl, with a strong north-easter accent piped up 'I'm American!'.

'Yeah right! And I'm Japanese!' Responded the leader, placing her fingers at the corners of her eyes and pulling them tight cue much raucous laughing from the girls and the leader.

At this point I interjected, and told the girls it wasn't very nice to laugh at an entire ethnic group because of a physical feature. The girls went quiet, the other leader glared at me viciously, there was a short pause and the game continued.

I doubt very much I will be allowed back. But I wasn't being unreasonable, was I?

not all guiders are gossipy/bitchy no, whiteandyellow - but the possibility is there that the "word"/opinion of a newbie would not be taken against the word of an established, experienced & well known leader. They might just be seen as a trouble maker rather than having the best interest of the girls and the organisation at heart, IYSWIM. I can see senior guiders letting this go as they dont want to rock the boat and lose a valuable trained, experienced guider. Wrong, but true in some places I am certain.

I am a bit that do many on here seem to think that making 'Japanese eyes' is acceptable. I also can't believe that people are trying to claim that it isn't racist!

Depends. I use BSL at work, and one of the regional signs for Chinese still in common parlance is predicated on this - you don't stretch your eyes as such, but the sign clearly indicates this (not explaining well!). It could be perceived as iffy to non signers.

I am a bit that do many on here seem to think that making 'Japanese eyes' is acceptable. I also can't believe that people are trying to claim that it isn't racist!

Saying that people of certain ethnic origins have certain physical characteristics is fine. No one is saying that pointing out differences in people is racist - but actually pulling a face to represent a physical characteristic in an attempt to be funny is an entirely different matter, surely. You can see that, can't you?!

Well done for saying something - although I also wonder about the girl that spoke up. I have two dual-national DDS who might have been put in a similar position just because their accents don't match other people's expectations.

I massively commend your sentiment and wish there were more people around in the world like you with the guts to speak out against casual racism.

But actually I think you publically humiliated the leader in front of her charges. A private word afterwards would have been probably just as effective but not undermined her in front of a room full of probably difficult to manage and over-excited pre-teens.

Sorry that's sounded PA, I didn't mean it that way. You are right. I just alway associate guide, brownies rainbows etc with the church as my pack were linked to the local Catholic Church, used their hall, fundraiser with them etc.